digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id
New Criticism’s purpose in analysis is to reveal the true meaning of the text based on the text itself. Tyson added that “the text itself” became the battle
cry of the New Critical effort to focus our attention on the literary work as the sole source of evidence for interpreting it 136. It is believed that a single best or most
accurate interpretation of each text could be seen when it best represents the text itself and best explains what the text means and how the text produces the
meaning 148. New Criticism focuses on internal element of the text. It does not explain about external factor. The internal element itself can be characterization,
theme, setting, plot, point of view, symbols, images, rhyme, and so on. D H Lawrence stated in his essay Morality and the Novel 1925 he wrote:
‘If a novel reveals true and vivid relationships, it is a moral work, no matter what the relationships may consist in.’And in Why the Novel Matters 1936 his
concept of ‘Life’ is as mystically and vaguely defined as ‘To be alive, to be man alive, to be whole man alive: that is the point. And at its best, the novel, and the
novel supremely, can help you’ qtd. in Charter 30.
2.2.1 Character
Characters are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with particular moral,
intellectual, and emotional qualities by inferences from what the persons say and their distinctive ways of saying it
—the dialogue—and from what they do—the action Abrams 35. Character is going to bring the reader into their imagination
by knowing the character from the story.
digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id
Moreover, Bennet and Royle also agreed that characters are considered as the life of literature. Characters become the objects of the readers’ curiosity and
fascination, affection and dislike, admiration and condemnation. Indeed, our intense relationship with literary characters makes them to be more than becoming
simply objects because in which through the power of identification, through sympathy and antipathy, they can become part of how we conceive ourselves, a
part of who we are 60. Sometimes the readers imagine themselves to be one of the characters in the story. By imagining it, the reader can get the real meaning
and goal from the story. In fiction, characters are divided into some types. Based on its significance
role in developing a story, characters are separated into major and minor characters. Major or main character refers to character which appears in almost all
or totally in the whole story. He or she is character which is mostly told and always relates to other characters. On the other hand, minor character is character
which appears only in some parts of the whole story and he or she is told less than major character. Minor characters may exist just when they are having correlation
with the major characters Nurgiyantoro 176-177. In the story, there are some kinds of character. They can have positive and negative side. It is like good and
bad character. Sometimes good character can cover whole story. The reader will like the good character then the bad character.
